In casinos, large amounts of money are exchanged and placed at risk and it has always been a significant concern of the casino industry to protect the casinos and players against fraudulent events. In casino table games, there are generally three areas of risk in fraud, 1) falsifying/replacing playing cards, 2) falsifying/replacing chips, and 3) passing of information improperly. Casinos would also classify certain forms of play at table games as at least undesirable, if not excludable (such as card-counting).
Gaming devices have been known which dispense winning awards in various forms. For example, it has been known to dispense winning prizes if a randomly determined outcome is one of a preselected plurality of winning outcomes from a greater plurality of possible outcomes. Such awards have been provided to players in the form of coins, currency, credits or tickets redeemable for prizes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,125 describes, that winning players are provided with the opportunity of receiving payouts in at least two distinct forms, both of which are inherently valuable. For example, according to one embodiment, a first payout comprises a national currency while another form of payout comprises tokens formed of a precious metal such as silver or gold. It has also been previously disclosed to dispense winning payouts consisting of either checks in a form redeemable at a bank or other “redeemable tickets”, i.e. tickets which are redeemable for prizes at a gaming establishment.
Gaming machine manufacturers have introduced cashless enabled games such as a slot machine to the market and these have begun to find wide acceptance in the gaming industry. The slot machine is an electro-mechanical game wherein chance or the skill of a player determines the outcome of the game. Slot machines are usually found in casinos.
Today, players in a casino play games on tables with dealers (e.g. Black Jack, Roulette), where chips are used as money. Usually, the player approaches the dealer and buys chips for cash, i.e. handing over a bank note to the dealer and receiving chips in exchange.
When the player finished playing, he will have to take all the chips off the table and will have to take them to the next table to play or carry them to a cashier's cage of the main bank of the casino to change them for cash.
Cashless enabled games are so named, because they can conduct financial exchanges using a mixture of traditional currencies and vouchers. Typically, a cashless enabled game has a gaming table device to produce vouchers and a voucher reader that supports automatic reading of vouchers. To coordinate the activities of multiple cashless enabled games, one or more cashless enabled games may be electronically coupled to a cashless enabled game system that controls the cashless operations of a cashless enabled game.
Over the last several years, cashless enabled games have found an increasing acceptance and use in the gaming industry with both the players, who enjoy the speed of play and ease of transporting their winnings around the casino, and the casinos who have realized significant labour savings in the form of reduced coin hopper reloads in the games, and an increase in revenue due to speed of play. Practical field experience with the application has illustrated that there are areas for improvement in current cashless systems.
WO2008/144674 describes a gaming table device which includes a so called TITO (Ticket In Ticket Out) host system for credit transfer comprising a method for exchanging cash against vouchers. However, the method and device therein offers no flexibility regarding issuing individual transaction amounts.
WO2006/031918 describes a validation system having a bulk note feeder assembly. The claimed system comprises a note transportation system and a note validator in order to identify characteristics of each note being passed through the system. Main purpose is bill validation before exchange of cash against chips in a casino.
WO2008/112832 describes a secured gaming table vouchering system to enable the use of game vouchers. The claimed system consists in a single unit which mechanically transports vouchers and/or currency notes after they are introduced into a certain opening of the unit. During mechanical transportation within the unit a bill validation may take place.